Friday, April 23, 2010

For all of you experiencing issues with the Viliv S5 HID Driver I released recently this email may come as a welcome surprise! Looks as though the answer is in a toothpick! LOL! (And a simple set of instructions). While I am a little sceptical we have tried it with two machines and it works! The answer comes after much backwards and forwards between Tegatech and Viliv and may be just what the doctor ordered!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

What started out as an effort to satisfy some friends has quickly turned into a who's who of Australian media! First my mate Jon Dee - runner up Australian of the Year 2010 (also Planet Ark fame and Do Something!) wanted an iPad and then Stephen Fenech (of the Fenech Family fame) and Editor of The Daily Telegraph's Connect column wanted one too.

Jon Dee and Stephen Fenech enjoy the iPads

I spent the late afternoon sipping tea and talking Tablets with these two gentlemen on Monday afternoon and by the end of it felt better about the IT space. Ironically not because they had converted me to a devoted iPad lover but because of the sense of commitment and passion around Tablet seemed somewhat escalated this year.

As we were spearheaded by Jon regarding the App Store, and his latest arrays of expenditures, I understood just how significant Tablets are to mobility becoming an accepted form of computing. With both PC and Apple Tablets there is a sense of freedom, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of empowerment which comes with being able to compute on the road and on the go. I remember my first exposure to Tablet PC and how it revolutionised the way I worked; it seems the “Minority Report” dreams of mobile computing are no longer a dream at all and rapidly becoming a reality.

What I am excited about most is how Apple’s iPad has pushed mainstream PC manufacturers like Dell and HP to look for ways to compete and therefore offer more compelling mobile computing solutions which will include things like proper multi-tasking, full uncompromised Operating Systems and ports! HAHA! I am looking forward to Apple’s touch experience being more common place on PCs and things battery life increases too. Overall Tablets I a good place this year!

In other news, last week I presented at the Sydney Mobile User Group (#SYDMO). It was hosted at the City Hotel and ended up being a great night. I took the TEGA Tablet and the iPad and had fun showcasing it to the many folks at the event. I met @TheLatteGuy who then invited me to do a similar presentation on Wednesday (21st April) at #wscm, 54 Norton St Leichhardt. So if you’re in Sydney and want to hang out and Talk Tablets! Pop in for coffee between 8am and 10am.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

As promised I did not hold onto my two iPads for very long. The first I passed on once it landed and cleared Customs and the second just this morning. It's not all over as I have another landing on Monday, but on this occassion a good friend of mine Jon Dee phoned me up and without much explanation I could tell this iPad was the exact “hit” he was chasing!

Just before sending it back however I wanted to restore it to factory default and I never would have imagined how simple that would be. I keep forgetting it's a glorified iPod so it makes sense this process is easy. While it excited me to learn of the ease of a total restore (and absolute erase) it also concerned me as to how easy the reset process actually is, especially when given the iPad spent more time in other people's hands (an occupational hazard the iPad will succumb to globally). If the reset process can be password protected please let me know how? If not, and maybe I am thinking too much like a Window's Junky, then I believe Apple should place password protection on the iPad reset process.
Within 30seconds (no more) I was reset, absolutely wiped, deleted and factory reset. Sure I can plug back into iTunes and do a restore but with 630hrs battery life (amazing isn’t it!!!) a lot can happen between charging.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

As some of my readers may know I have a nine year old boy who is an absolute geek and has been since he was little. He and I have geeked around at the local carwash, at his school and he even launched a Tablet PC training video when he was only 4yrs old! As he is growing-up however his wants are changing and so are his interests. While still an absolute geek he is also a musician, i.e. percussionist in his local school band. Recently we bought a brand new Pearl drum kit for him to use at home and it is awesome to listen to and watch him practice.

Leon and his mate Ian configure the baby Fujitsu (U1010 aka U810)

Over the years I’ve talked about many Tablet usage case studies but on this occasion I have a “really cool” one! So with Tablets to spare in our home (at last count a year ago there are over thirty tablets at our fingertips) I ordered a set of RAM mounts and installed a new Fujitsu U1010 (aka U810) onto his drum kit! With this he can now surf YouTube for Drum lessons, download music and listen along using his Panasonic headset. The reason I chose the U1010 is that it has no use for me (just too slow) and yet is a perfect size and shape, with its touchscreen and incorporated keyboard, and sits nicely on the drum kit and is transformed into an incredible learning tool!

Monday, April 12, 2010

I figured it would not be fair to get Australia’s first imported iPad (I know this as Customs worked hard to “define” it in their system today) and not post some thoughts about it. In keeping with that theme it would also not be fair for me to get too detailed on this initial post as I have used the iPad for a total of about 6hrs and that by no means makes me the consummate iPad expert! Truly though after almost a decade of talking Tablet in Australia it is fair to say my interpretation may be different to yours.

and Australia was changed forever

This morning as FedEX knocked on the door and delivered a single iPad to my doorstep I felt like it was the year 2001 all over again and Dr. Neil was at the door! (Read this post and you’ll understand). While on this occasion I had less to be blindly optimistic about, and more to be intellectually cautious about, there was still the palpable taste of geek excitement in the air. As I signed for the package and headed downstairs I couldn’t help but completely forget about the morning’s 200+ emails, the unanswered phone messages or the fact that I had a perfectly good cup of coffee only half drunk! There it was, a FedEX box in its full glory with only but a drawstring standing between me and an Apple iPad.

FedEX, iPad and me!

As my son gathered round with one of my staff we all couldn’t wait to see the item inside. As I pealed open the FedEX box and saw a shiny shrink-wrapped white box with classic Apple logo staring at me I knew I had only one task ahead of me, i.e. cut the nonsense and get the thing out!

Smaller than first imagined

At first I was surprised just how small the device was; I guess like all herculean sized marketing campaigns the reality is often very different. Like all great unboxings I grabbed the device, looked over the ports and buttons (of which it has been repeatedly noted there are some considerable absentees) I then headed for the power button! It turned on very rapidly and one of the initial joys, which have been common in Ultra-Mobile PC design this year, was the sheer silence these fanless devices omit. Not only is there no system fan for cooling there are no spinning components either, i.e. optical drive of traditional spinning hard disk are also gone. Regrettably to my expectation, and almost right on queue, the iPad gave me it’s first “command” reminding me who’s house I was about to move into. Lost in all its shinny glory I forgot for a second I was entering into an autocratic relationship and was about to leave a great portion of my autonomous existence behind. With nothing more than an image of a USB cable and arrow pointing to iTunes logo I knew I was entering the Kingdom-o-Jobs!

Kingdom-o-jobs

After automatially installing the iPad driver and updating iTunes to version 9.1.0.79 (another reminder that I was working with a larger phone-styled device) I was finally into iPad heaven and ready to “get the experience”. My first idea was to get the iPad on the Wi-Fi network so after owning the iPhone (and being extremely happy with it) for some time I headed to the settings control panel and connected to the wireless network. I then jumped to Facebook, Realestate.com.au, Tegatech website and my Blog. I knew this smorgasbord of URLs was familiar to me and it might well help me judge the experience better. Apart from Realestate.com.au diverting to the version of their mobile site all the websites acted as expected and was so easy to navigate thanks to the capacitive touchscreen. The “pinch” gesture worked like a dream and rotating the iPad through portrait and landscape almost seemed to work at the speed of thought! I did however start to experience my first dilemma with the single-tasking processor at this stage. Being a power-power-power user in the PC space, and coming from a world where 8GB RAM and 40+ processes running in the background is what we call a “great start to the morning” I was definitely a little irritated with the websites needing a wake-up (literally a refresh) each and every time I toggled between URLs. I couldn’t care less as I was on “corporate internet time” (a world where Gigabytes of data are covered by the cash-cows I never dare look straight in the eyes) and I was using the Wi-Fi-only iPad; it did however cross my mind that for every frequently visited, but infrequently used, website I visit I would now be clocking up a lot more bytes of data, and potentially costs. I think Apple was clever releasing the Wi-Fi version of the iPad first as with this people will get the experience, but not the hefty internet bill that might come with the 3G version. Interesting!

single-tasking means mutli-reloading, each and everytime

After some surfing I opened up Mail (I consider Mail to be Apple’s answer to Microsoft's Outlook Express) and setup my Microsoft Exchange account. Again this was easy and in no time I was sending and receiving email (actually just after I got rid of "sent from iPad” signature! LOL!) I really did not appreciate the limited functionality that Mail brings (given I live and breathe Outlook 2010 18hrs per day) however I did appreciate the speed at which I was live and working. I then decided to venture into App Store and that’s when I hit a massive hurdle for Australians and perhaps many “smallish” markets, i.e. I was forced into Australia’s App Store (forgetting I'd synchronised using my AU iTunes account) and was limited to the amount of functions and features I could access. I quickly logged off and logged back in using my United States account and I began to “get the experience”. Regrettably this experience literally comes at a price and I quickly found myself spending nearly US$60 on apps, movies and a TV series. On the first day I was scared to log into iBook store as my wife might quickly ban the iPad from my hands!

While the richness of the iPad experience begins with the ultra-thin and ultra-sexy hardware, it easily ends with your wallet receiving “that empty feeling”. Recently I described the iPad as a clever portal to Apple’s most profitable (not in $$$ but in %%%) business revenue stream, i.e. their iTunes Store, iBook Store and App Store. While the math may not look as though the iPad is being built as a commodity item, where users will get handed these free in favour of locking them into contractual/monetary commitments like internet bundles and media bundles, I can suggest it's not far from the truth! Just ask avid readers of the New York Times i.e. if you’re a NYT reader and iPad user be prepared to “get the experience” at a price! I might soon call this the iPaid and not the iPad! (I should coin that...LOL)

wash your hands before, and after, each iPad visit!

In summary I love the hardware, but hate the fingerprints on the ultra-glossy screen, and the fact that the screen can’t be read in direct sunlight; ludicrous given just how wonderfully mobile the device is. I love the battery life but know that if rumours of multi-tasking support are true then I’ll basically halve the battery life I have experienced today; I also love the simplicity of the navigation experience, but regrettably hate that it’s “Apple’s way or no-way” when it comes to functions I can extract from th Operating System. I absolutely love the feel of the keyboard on the capacitive touchscreen, i.e. effortless and extremely accurate; regrettably the lack of handwritten input functionality will be a sad loss, especially on a device of this size and nature, surely a natural fit. There is no reason to go into lack of camera (would have been nice for a skype call), lack of SD card slot (for easy transfer for photos) and lack of support for Adobe Flash (blah, blah, blah).

Ultimately I’m in a dilemma and that is this, the iPad won’t replace my iPhone (so I’ll continue to take that with me everyday) but it also won’t replace my Tablet PC (as I also have multi-touch on my Tablet and the added benefit of handwritten input too). So as per Steve Job’s own admission, the iPad sits happily, and arguably, between an iPhone and a traditional notebook; my dilemma is I’m either on the phone constantly or on my notebook, and rarely anyplace else. I believe in a world of converging technologies and may discover that there will not be space for a fulltime third device in my life!? For now however I’ve downloaded (and paid for) a rental of Sandra Bullock’s “While You Were Sleeping” and am headed to bed with my wife and my iPad (and I’ll sneak my AMEX under my pillow in case I want to use the iPad after she falls asleep!!!

PS. If you're in Sydney (that narrowed down the audience) come to the monthly Sydney Mobile User Group where I'll be presenting the iPad and new TEGA Tablet.

Friday, April 09, 2010

Travelling back from Seoul, Korea I couldn’t help but feel good about my experience. The food was better than what I’d experienced in Tokyo (although I blame that on the briefness of my trip to Tokyo), the people and buildings more interesting than Beijing and the gadgets very innovative. I met with UMID and VIliv, and a few others and discussed what’s now and what’s new. As I sampled the foods and played with the gadgets I could see that the South Korean’s are definitely focused on long-term profitability and viability of their country. If you have not travelled through South Korea I could suggest it is a “must see” on your list. To me it’s as unique and interesting as Dubai, and that came as a surprise to me.

Two amazing products I played with were the yet to be released Viliv HD5 and the N5. Both are innovative and both take the Ultra-Mobile PC platform up a notch! I have a video of the HD5 in action and will post that later. Both are tiny and based on Android form-factors which are designed to optimise battery life, and importantly, decrease price. Like I said the trip was great and well worth the effort. I will let you know more about the details as they come up and as I am able to share. Regrettably I sign more NDAs than I care to remember in my life so it's a wonder I can even write a blog. However if you ask I can always find creative ways to answer! :-)

Technomart, (near Gangbyeon Station). Geek Heaven!

Regarding the iPad I have a few arriving on Monday morning (Aussie time) and will post some thoughts. I got sent some to review and I'll certainly give them a trashing. The first thing I'll do is sit down on my favourite couch and have some fun browsing YouTube (oh wait, no flash support), then I'll jump on Skype and have a video call from my backyard, that will be cool! (oh, there's no camera). At least I can go onto Apple's stores and pay more money for apps I don't need! (Oh, there's no regional support for Australia). CAN'T WAIT!!!